Illumination
by delishiz
Summary: A new fairy arrives at Pixie Hollow. This fairy, however, wants to go beyond her simple light-talent duties. She is committed to discovering the hidden secrets and scandals that the Hollow has to offer. Rating may change later
1. Arrival

"It's time."

Queen Clarion's voice echoed over the expanse of Pixie Hollow. A soft sound of flittering was heard as thousands of fairies made their way to the Pixie Dust Tree to witness the birth of a new fairy. "Gather around, everyone," Clarion stood at the head of the tree, with the ministers behind her, eagerly watching the leaf where the fairy would take his or her first steps and choose a talent.

The wind blew gently through the trees, carrying a small red tassel. As it passed by the Pixie Dust Tree, it dropped the tassel on the leaf.

"Ahhh," the group of fairies said collectively.

"What is it?" someone said.

"It's a Lost Thing, you know, something from the Mainland." came the reply.

"It's pretty!"

"Shh!"

Queen Clarion made her way to the large glowing pool of pixie dust, where the fairies traveled each day to receive their necessary dose. The dust gave them the ability to fly far distances, and it was also crucial for their work. Now, Queen Clarion would use it to bring the new fairy to life. Her small golden hand reached for the cup as she scooped up pile of dust and brought it to the leaf.

"Now, I want you to all be sure to welcome the new fairy warmly. This is a very stressful time of the year, and in order to utilize his or her skills effectively, the need to feel comfortable is everyone's responsibility. Understood?" The fairies were making the transition from winter to spring. This was generally the most difficult time for them, but especially now as there had been an arcane lack of supplies this year. As she began to sprinkle the pixie dust, Clarion nodded towards the fairies sitting on the surrounding leaves. "Bring forward your oblations," she commanded.

Silvermist hopped off her leaf and placed a beautiful dewdrop on one of the small gold toadstools surrounding the leaf. Rosetta put a glowing pansy next to it. Iridessa created a tiny dot of light, which was placed next to the flower. Fawn produced a considerably large egg, which she carefully set down on the other side of Silvermist's dewdrop. Vidia waited until the rest of them had gone before she huffed over to one of the remaining toadstools and generated a tiny tornado.

"Tinker Bell?" Queen Clarion said.

Tinker Bell had been chatting with one of the neighboring fairies when she heard her name called and realized that she still needed to present the tinker fairies' object. "Oh! I'm sorry!" she said, her face as red as a ripe tomato. Vidia rolled her eyes as Tinker Bell brought a small twig-and-rock mallet and laid it on the remaining toadstool. She smiled sheepishly at Clarion as she flew back.

Clarion nodded. "Very good," she said. She sprinkled the last of the dust onto the tassel and placed the cup back on the leaf next to the pool.

Everyone leaned in and waited. And waited. Nothing seemed to be happening. "Perhaps… a small boost is needed," Queen Clarion said thoughtfully. She flew to the tassel and gave it a small tap. Almost instantly, a small burst of pixie dust took place as the new addition to Pixie Hollow stood up.

She was female, wearing the tassel as a small, odd-fitting strapless gown. Her hair was a dark strawberry blonde, which went nicely with her snow white skin. Her small, upturned nose was dotted with freckles. At first there appeared to be nothing particularly impressive about the new fairy. But then she opened her eyes. They were a clear, beautiful green, large and friendly. The new fairy blinked a few times as she looked around. She tucked some hair behind her ear and smiled awkwardly. "Hello," she said to Queen Clarion.

"Born of laughter, clothed in cheer. Happiness has brought you here. Welcome to Pixie Hollow." Clarion declared, giving her usual welcome statement.

"Um, thanks," the new fairy said shyly.

"Now, let's have a look at these wings..." the queen said as she gently touched the new fairy's glistening wings. They immediately popped out, creating a soft flitting noise.

"Oh, wow! Thank you," The new fairy said as she looked at her wings. Then she noticed all the talent items. "What is all this stuff?" she asked.

"Every fairy and sparrow man has a talent," The queen explained. "Something they are particularly good at. These items represent all the different talents in Pixie Hollow. Choose."

The new fairy felt a tremendous amount of pressure. She felt confused. "But how will I… know which to…"

All the fairies smiled knowingly. They'd heard this before. "Trust me. You'll know." the queen said.

The new fairy nodded. She looked around. _That flower sure is pretty_, she thought. The new fairy stepped to the flower and grabbed it with both hands… it promptly fell into pieces. The new fairy was ashamed at what she'd done. "I… I'm sorry," she said softly. "I didn't mean to-"

The queen waved off her apology. "It is no matter. Try something else, my dear."

The new fairy nodded eagerly. She turned around and her eyes fell upon the dewdrop. _This time, I'll be more careful_, she assured herself as she reached out and gently touched the ball of water with a finger. Although it didn't break up quite as devastatingly as the flower had, it immediately fell and rolled off the leaf onto her bare feet. "Oh! Cold!" she exclaimed. Next came the snowflake, which broke and splashed on the toadstool. The tornado disappeared into the air. The number of options was dwindling. The new fairy spotted the mallet. _Well, at least that looks strong enough for me to not break it, _she thought hopefully as she reached for it. The mallet didn't break, but slid out of her hands and landed with a bang on the leaf. "Oh my! I'm sorry!" she said, but her apology was once again ignored.

"Continue," the queen directed.

And so the new fairy did. The egg shattered into tiny pieces. The cake crumbled in her hand. She tried to read Rune's book and ended up ripping out half the pages. She picked up the paintbrush and managed not to break it, but when she tried waving it in the air she accidentally threw it and it hit Vidia on the head.

"Oh, I'm sorry, miss," the new fairy said quickly.

"Yeah, whatever," Vidia said flatly as she rubbed her sore head. She was in a good mood, so she was being friendly. _I'll take care of her later,_ she thought.

The new fairy looked around. There were two things left: the ball of golden light and the ladle. She looked at Terence, who had brought the ladle. But Terence was not looking at her; his eyes were locked on Tinker Bell, who was looking right back. It was obvious that Tinker Bell and Terence shared a special relationship. The new fairy felt that if she became a ladle-talent she would disrupt that relationship somehow. Instead, she peered up at Iridessa, who _was_ looking at her.

Smiling, The new fairy approached the ball of light and cupped it in her hands. As soon as the new fairy touched it, the ball slowly began to expand.

"Ooh," the group of fairies and sparrow men said collectively.

The new fairy slowly stepped back as the ball of light became huge, and then mutely exploded into little dots of light which fell to the ground. It was quite beautiful, and when it was over, the new fairy felt very proud of herself.

"Excellent!" Queen Clarion said, clapping her hands together. "My dear, you are without a doubt a light-talent." she announced happily. "Light fairies, meet your newest addition... Lux."

"Great!" Iridessa and several other light-talents flew over to the large leaf where Queen Clarion and the new fairy stood. "Welcome, welcome, welcome! We're happy to have you! Your Majesty, may I show Lux to her new home?"

The queen nodded. "Yes, Iridessa. Thank you."

"Come on!" Iridessa shouted happily as she and the other fairies flew off towards Sunflower Gully. Lux curtsied graciously to the queen and then quickly took off to catch up with Iridessa and the others.


	2. Exploration

"We light-talents live in Summer Glade. I'll save that for last," Iridessa explained as the group flew through the air. "Why don't we start..." she thought for a moment. "In Spring Valley? Then we'll go to the Woods, and then through the Forest," Iridessa demonstrated with her hands. "And then finish in Summer Glade." She smiled and nodded. "Sound good?"

"Oh... yeah, of course," Lux responded absentmindedly. In all honesty she hadn't paid much attention to what Iridessa had said. She was far too busy looking around her at the stately beauty of Pixie Hollow. The Pixie Dust Tree had been a mere sliver of all the splendor that the Hollow had to offer.

"Lux, you follow me," Iridessa announced. "The rest of you can go back to work." The others groaned in displeasure knowing they wouldn't be part of the tour. "I'm sorry, but you guys know how much there is to do." No one could argue with that, so they reluctantly flitted back to work. After they were gone, Iridessa turned to Lux with a big grin. "Now, let's go!"

It didn't take long to get to Spring Valley. "How colorful," were the first words that came out of Lux's mouth. It _was_ colorful, from the blossoming trees to the motley flowers which covered the ground. "And _smelly!_" she added after taking in a big whiff of hair. Iridessa gave her a look. "Oh, no, not smelly in a bad way. Not yucky-smelling, or anything. There are just a lot of smells. Um... smellful?"

Iridessa laughed. "No, smelly is fine. Yeah, the Valley here is pretty colorful and... smelly. This is where the garden-talents live. They help the flowers grow and teach bulbs to sprout, among other things. They're essential to Pixie Hollow, and are especially important during the transition from winter to spring because of the complex changes that plants undergo during this time," she explained.

Lux nodded, in awe of her friend's knowledge. "You're so smart!" she exclaimed. "How did you learn all of these things?"

Iridessa seemed surprised at the compliment. "You just learn these things from being here for a while, I suppose," she said. "I'm sure in time you'll know just as much as I do, if not more."

The other fairy smiled and nodded eagerly. Lux was glad she got to be a light-talent and have Iridessa as a friend. She was _so_ nice. "Can I ask you something?" she said.

"Okay, but let's keep moving."

"Do Tinker Bell and Terence love each other?"

Iridessa stopped in her tracks. Her eyes widened and her gaze fell down to the ground. This seemed to be a sensitive topic for her. "It's... Tink and Terence have a close relationship," she said quietly. "They care deeply for one another, but..." she looked like she wanted to say more but chose not to. "Why do you want to know?"

"Well," Lux said, straightening up a bit. "When I was finding my talent, I specifically didn't go for the ladle because I was afraid that if I became a ladle-talent, I might disrupt their relationship."

Iridessa looked up. She chewed her lip nervously. "How... thoughtful of you," she said.

The awkward silence that took place afterwards was broken by a high-pitched squeaky voice. "Iridessa! Thank goodness you're here! I've been meaning to talk to you about the fireflies! There's- wait, who are you?" Lux looked over at the speaker. It was another fairy, about her size, dressed in an elegant flower-petal gown. Her small, pretty face was locked on Lux's, and her golden-brown hair fell in long curls around her back. "Oh! Wait! I know, you're the new fairy! What was your name again? Lux? I'm Rosetta!"

The new fairy nodded, happy that her name was known. "It's nice to meet you! That's a beautiful dress," she said, beaming.

Rosetta smiled. "Aw, darlin', you sure are sweet, aren't you? Well, sugar, you've got some of the prettiest eyes I've ever seen." She gave Lux a friendly pat on the back. "It's nice to meet you too, dearie. I hope I didn't interrupt your little tour too much."

Iridessa shrugged. "No, it's fine. I'm glad that you two got to meet. But can we talk about the fireflies a little later?"

"Sure, no problem. Glad I could make your acquaintance, Luxie!" Rosetta said as she flew off, leaving a pleasant scent of roses in her place.

Lux couldn't believe her luck. Already, everyone she met seemed so nice! "Are all the creatures at Pixie Hollow as friendly as you and Rosetta?" she asked.

"Most of them," Iridessa replied. "But not all," she said, immediately thinking of Vidia. Iridessa sighed and shook her head. "Anyway, let's move on."

The next place they visited was a massive waterfall. Lux's eyes widened in fear as they approached it. "I don't think I want to get near that," she said, her voice small.

Iridessa smiled. Many new fairies, particularly light-talent ones, were very afraid of water when they first encountered it. To some degree, it was a legitimate fear because water on a fairy's wings was definitely a problem, however, as long as one flew carefully it could generally be easily avoided. "Don't worry, Lux," she said. "Just make sure to keep your wings dry and the water won't hurt you. Besides, we aren't going to be getting much closer than this anyway, I just wanted to introduce you to a friend of mine."

"Oh... alright," Lux said nervously.

They flew a little further away from the waterfall, to Lux's relief, and ended downstream, where schools of fish swam merrily. There, a fairy and a sparrow man sat together peering into the stream. The fairy appeared to be trying to teach the sparrow man how to do something and he just wasn't grasping the concept. "That was better, but do you think you could do it more like this?" The fairy cupped her hands and immersed them in the waters of the stream. When she brought them out, they were not filled with a pile of water as Lux had expected. Instead, the fairy brought out a beautiful transparent dewdrop, similar to the one Lux had seen earlier. _These must be water-talents,_ she thought. The sparrow man imitated the fairy's actions and a smaller, yet just as lovely dewdrop appeared in his hands. "Very good!" the fairy exclaimed with visible pleasure.

"Silvermist, do you have a moment? I just wanted you to meet the new fairy."

The fairy looked up. She had paper-pale skin like Lux, although hers was absent of freckles. Her hair was long and thick, and was a blue-black color, as if she used a dye made from blackberries. Her smile was kind and companionable. She turned back to the sparrow man. "Would you mind if-"

"No, not at all," he replied. "I'll just keep practicing."

Silvermist nodded at him and then flew across the river. She offered the new fairy her hand. "My name is Silvermist, as you probably realized,"

Lux simpered. "Yeah, I did. My name's Lux," she said as she took Silvermist's hand and shook it briefly.

"Glad to meet you," the water-talent fairy said. "Are you enjoying this little walkabout?" she said, her warm smile still present.

_How does everyone know about this?_ Lux wondered. "Oh, yes, it's very beautiful here," she said. "I can't wait til I get to see my house," she added.

"Iridessa must be saving it for last," Silvermist said with a light giggle. "Aren't you, Dessa?"

Iridessa put up her hands. "Guilty as charged," she answered, grinning.

"Anyway, I've got to go back and finish up with this guy," Silvermist said, pointing back at the sparrow man, who had accidentally drawn out a fish instead of a dewdrop. "It was nice seeing you, Iridessa, and meeting you, Lux."

****

"We'll go home soon," Iridessa promised. "I just want you to meet a couple more of my friends."

"All right," Lux said. At the moment she was in no position to pass up friends. She needed all the friends she could get.

They flew through the Winter Woods, which was much too cold for either of them (they didn't stay long) and then made their way to to a hill with a massive maple tree in the center. There were a number of homes made from smaller sections of trees and leaves surrounding it. "This is the Autumn Forest," Iridessa explained. "A lot of animal-talents live here because there are so many nuts and fruits. Right now we're in a segment called Maple Tree Hill, which is home to a lot of fairies and sparrow men, including my friend Fawn."

Finding Fawn proved difficult. She wasn't at home, nor was she at the workshop where hundreds of animal-talents were gathering berries. Iridessa suddenly had an idea. "You know, I bet she's up there," she said, motioning towards the sky.

Lux's eyes widened. "You mean she's _dead_?" she said in horror.

Iridessa shook her head as she laughed. "No, no! I mean up in the trees. One of the animal-talents' responsibilities is teaching the baby birds how to fly." She fondly remembered when Tinker Bell had tried to do this and failed miserably. "I think that might be where Fawn is," she explained.

The two fairies flew upwards and sure enough, Fawn was hovering over a nest, trying to coax one of the newborn birds to try flying. "What's wrong, little guy?" she cooed, rubbing the baby's head gently. "Don't you want to fly? See the world? You don't want to stay in here for the rest of your life, do you?" The bird shook his head slowly. "No, you don't," Fawn agreed. "So you've got to fly, see?" She demonstrated by flapping her arms. "Will you try it?" The bird reluctantly imitated Fawn's movements and was surprised when he began to take flight. "Great!" she said. "Try to fly to that tree over there," she indicated another branch where several more animal-talents stood waiting.

"Fawn! Hi!" Iridessa exclaimed.

Fawn turned around. "Oh, hey, Dessa! Who's this?" she asked, lightly punching Lux on the shoulder.

Lux rubbed the spot even though it didn't hurt. "I'm Lux," she answered. "I'm the new fairy."

Fawn's face brightened. "Oh, yeah! Right! Of course, I remember! Great!" She glanced at the other tree, where the newborn bird was sitting with the others. "Hey, I've got to help these guys, but thanks for coming to visit!" she said before zooming off.

"Everyone comes and goes so quickly," Lux observed.

"Yeah. Well, there's a lot of work to be done, so wasting time talking to others is probably not the best idea. I mean, you're just getting acquainted with everything, so it's fine, but..." Iridessa smiled clumsily. "You know what I mean. Anyway, let's go meet Tinker Bell."

They flew towards the east, and soon the number of maple trees began to dwindle, and the air became filled with fuzzy white puffs. "What are these things?" Lux said, catching one in her palm.

"Hm? Oh, this dandelion fluff. Tink was born out of one of these," Iridessa clarified. The fluff had served far better as a dress than the red tassel that Lux still had on. "This is also where Tinkers' Nook is, where tinker-talents live and work." Iridessa explicated. She pointed towards the ground, where a large space was full of fairies and sparrow men walking around or riding mice, carrying tons of supplies. A plump fairy in a green dress flitted around and yelled at all of them. "That's Fairy Mary," Iridessa said.

Lux raised her eyebrows. "Do we have one of those?"

"Not really. Well, we have the Minister of Summer, but she's not around as often as Mary is. She has other responsibilities besides making sure we do our work. I suppose in a way Fairy Mary is the Minister of Tinkering, but she's really more like their coordinator,"

Lux tried the word out for herself. "Co-_or-_dinator. You know a lot of complicated words, miss," she noted.

"No need to call me 'miss.' My name is Iridessa,"

"Oh, right." Lux blushed slightly. "Iridessa. That's really pretty."

"Thanks. It comes from the word _iridescent,_ which means 'producing lustrous colors.'"

"Wow! That's really cool!" Lux smiled openly. "What does my name mean?"

"A _lux_ is a unit by which illumination is measured," Iridessa recited. "It's Greek."

"Greek?"

"The Greeks were an ancient group of people who lived on the mainland in... I'll tell you more later. Let's go see Tink."

Tinker Bell was at the workshop, carefully working on a contraption made of an acorn, a twig, and several Lost Things. She had on a pair of magnifying glasses similar to the ones Bobble wore, which made her eyes look huge. Apparently they also gave her periscopic vision, because she saw the two other fairies without looking behind her.

"Hi Iridessa, hi Lux," she said as she pulled out a hammer from somewhere.

Lux was impressed. "You're the only one who remembered my name," she told Tinker Bell.

"I've got a good memory for names," the tinker fairy responded, smiling. "Has Iridessa shown you all around?"

"Oh, yes! We met Rosetta and Silvermist, and saw a big waterfall, which was scary, and then we flew through the Winter Woods, and it was so cold we had to get the heck out of there and then we came here to the Forest and we just met Fawn and now we're meeting you!" Lux proclaimed.

"Wow," said Tinker Bell. "Was that all in one breath?"

"The trip? No, of course not. Oh, you meant what I just said." Lux chortled, her face slightly red.

"Maybe you're a fast-talking talent," the tinker replied with a grin as she began to pound on the acorn.

Iridessa patted Lux's shoulder. "Oh, no, this one is all light," she said proudly.

"I bet," Tinker Bell said, starting to pay less attention to the conversation and more to her work. "Light-talents are very important. I'm sure Iridessa already told you that, though," she added. The acorn top popped off and she set it aside as she got to work on the bottom part.

Lux looked very interested in what Tink was doing, but Iridessa pulled her arm. "I think we should let Tinker Bell do her work," she said. "And besides, now I get to show you the best place of them all - Summer Glade!"


End file.
